Idiom
wet behind the ears
Meaning
Inexperienced; just beginning; immature (especially in judgment).
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He is still wet behind the ears at his new job.”
“The manager hesitated to give the project to the intern because he was still wet behind the ears.”
“You cannot expect the new pilot to handle a storm alone when she is still so wet behind the ears and only finished her training last week.”
“Although the young recruit showed great promise, his colleagues viewed him as wet behind the ears due to his lack of experience in the field.”
Examples
simple
“He is still wet behind the ears at his new job.”
contextual
“The manager hesitated to give the project to the intern because he was still wet behind the ears.”
“You cannot expect the new pilot to handle a storm alone when she is still so wet behind the ears and only finished her training last week.”
complex
“Although the young recruit showed great promise, his colleagues viewed him as wet behind the ears due to his lack of experience in the field.”
Origin
The term first appeared in English c. 1850 in Pennsylvania, functioning as a calque of the German phrase *feucht hinter den Ohren*. The German *Ohren* provides the anatomical focus for a condition of general dampness.
The imagery is drawn from the birth of livestock. A newborn animal is licked dry by its mother in all accessible areas, leaving the crevices behind the ears as the final traces of amniotic fluid. To be so described is to be identified as a creature recently arrived, possessing the dampness of the womb and the corresponding lack of worldly experience.
Key words
Related idioms
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